Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ") 
April,  1876.  J 
The  Division  of  Poisons. 
167 
Put  ten  drops  of  suspected  balsam  in  a  mortar,  and  rub  it  quickly 
with  half  a  fluidrachm  of  sulphuric  acid  for  one  minute  ;  add  then  half 
a  fluidounce  of  water,  keeping  rubbing  briskly  for  two  minutes  longer. 
Take  the  resulting  black  mass  out,  put  it  on  a  piece  of  filtering-paper, 
in  order  to  detach  the  adhering  diluted  sulphuric  acid.  When  the 
balsam  is  pure,  it  will  give  a  quickly-hardening  black,  after  an  hour, 
brittle  mass  ;  but  when  the  balsam  is  mixed  with  castor  oil,  the  re- 
sulting mass  will  stay  tenacious,  stick  to  the  fingers,  and  resemble  soft, 
black  pitch. 
Carrollton,  La.,  February,  1876. 
THE  DIVISION  OF  POISONS. 
BY  WALTER  E.   BIBBY,   PH.  G. 
(Read  at  the  Pharmaceutical  Meeting,  March  2.1st.) 
As  a  large  number  of  the  medicines  prescribed  by  physicians  of  the 
present  day  are  very  poisonous,  it  devolves  upon  the  pharmacist  to  exer- 
cise the  greatest  care  and  caution  in  compounding  prescriptions  contain- 
ing such  poisonous  substances  as  strychnia,  hydrarg.  chlor.  cor., 
arsenious  acid,  narcotic  extracts,  etc.  It  often  occurs  that  physicians 
prescribe  these  remedies  in  minute  doses  for  children,  aged  persons  and 
delicate  females  ;  it  is,  therefore,  exceedingly  important  that  they  should 
not  receive  a  fraction  over  the  quantity  prescribed. 
The  greatest  care  and  attention  should  be  given  to  this  class  of 
prescriptions,  so  that,  when  a  third  is  prescribed,  a  half  grain  may  not 
be  given,  which,  in  all  probability,  would  result  very  seriously,  or  pro- 
duce a  condition  of  affairs  entirely  different  from  that  anticipated  by  the 
physician  ;  moreover,  the  uncertainty  attending  the  weighing  of  frac- 
tions of  grains  by  ordinary  scales,  renders  it  necessary  for  the  pharma- 
cist to  first  weigh  one  grain  and  then  divide  this  into  the  quantity 
prescribed,  in  other  words,  virtually  guess  at  the  quantity. 
To  remedy  this,  and  at  the  same  time,  secure  to  physicians  and 
pharmacists  absolute  certainty,  I  would  recommend  that  trituration  of 
the  poisons  in  common  use  be  made  of  such  a  strength  that  each  grain 
of  the  trituration  shall  represent  a  certain  quantity  of  the  poison,  and 
the  trituration  be  made  only  with  sugar  of  milk.  The  reasons  for 
using  this  substance  are  various.  In  the  first  place,  sugar  of  milk  is 
a  harmless,  hard,  gritty,  odorless  and  almost  tasteless  substance.    It  is 
